Solar Activity Report for 5/20/03

The calm before the storm would probably best describe the status of things right now. The solar wind speed has dropped down to a fairly normal level, and

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, May 20, 2003

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The calm before the storm would probably best describe the status of
things right now. The solar wind speed has dropped down to a fairly
normal level, and there isn't much to report. The solar wind speed is
expected to pick up in around 48 hours due coronal hole effects, so
stay tuned for that. Just how much activity there will be remains to
be seen. As coronal holes go, I'd say the this one is medium-sized,
and it is in a good Earth-pointing position. There was an impressive
looking prominence photographed on the 18th jutting out from the sun's
eastern limb. It stretches about 10 Earth diameters from base to tip.http://science.nasa.gov/spaceweather/swpod2003/20may03/newton1.jpg .
None of the few small sunspot regions visible look to have any
significant flare-generating potential for the time being, and the
background X-ray flux remains relatively low.